I realize it's a little early, but since there's now at least one EOY album list in each of the three geographical categories on the spreadsheet, including several of the major UK magazines, I figure I'll post the first update. There are already almost 200 discrete albums included.

As I explained in the Exclaim! thread, all its genre lists will be entered into a single column with a list value of 21 (i.e., one number higher than the largest number of entries on any single list). These are the first two that have been posted; the rest will be entered as added.

The Skinny and OOR are top 10 lists, and have been valued as such; OOR definitely has a longer list forthcoming, and The Skinny may or may not as well, at which point I'll add the rest of the entries and change the list values accordingly.

It's a shame because I'm sure "Black Messiah" would have been number one on the 2014 list if it had come out a bit earlier in the year and it would have been #1 or #2 this year had it come out this year already.

I fail to understand why critics don't wait till the end of the year to post their EOY lists. Film critics are equally guilty of that as well; recently the Sight and Sound poll (one of the most elitist and high-brow film polls) announced the best films of 2015 in November, despite the fact that a whole month in the year is still left.

With its #8 spot on The Guardian's list and a top ten rank from Italy's Blow Up, Kamasi Washington's The Epic is now in the top 20 on the spreadsheet. It's nothing short of astonishing that a triple-disc, three-hour jazz album (easily the most acclaimed jazz album by mainstream critics in years, if not decades) is doing this well. Obviously, Washington's associations with Kendrick Lamar and (to a lesser extent) Flying Lotus and Thundercat have helped immeasurably in getting his name out there and the album talked about, but in the end it has to come down to the music, and the aptly titled album delivers and then some. I hope everyone has the chance (and the time!) to listen to it, because it really is worth the investment.

rohailashraf1 wrote:I fail to understand why critics don't wait till the end of the year to post their EOY lists. Film critics are equally guilty of that as well; recently the Sight and Sound poll (one of the most elitist and high-brow film polls) announced the best films of 2015 in November, despite the fact that a whole month in the year is still left.

To be fair, film lists work a little differently, as there are never going to be any "surprise" film releases come December. With the exception of "Star Wars," every film that stands a reasonable chance of making anyone's favorite list has already screened somewhere in the world for press, so it isn't too much of a leap to present an early poll.

Music, on the other hand, is a much more chaotic, abrupt field. That, I wholesomely agree with waiting until the actual end of the year to present.

Setherex wrote:To be fair, film lists work a little differently, as there are never going to be any "surprise" film releases come December. With the exception of "Star Wars," every film that stands a reasonable chance of making anyone's favorite list has already screened somewhere in the world for press, so it isn't too much of a leap to present an early poll.

Music, on the other hand, is a much more chaotic, abrupt field. That, I wholesomely agree with waiting until the actual end of the year to present.

Of course, before digital media the music industry was the same as film in regard to there not being any surprise releases. Early December best-of lists are essentially a pre-digital relic. Traditionally, the best-of lists are published in the last issue to hit shelves of the year (paradoxically, the January issue) which are published in early December--meaning that the lists would have to be mostly finalized by mid-November. Print mags are still beholden to this schedule (online sources on the otherhand. . .). There's also the notion that these best-of lists are a form of buyer's guide, so best to have them out before people start buying gifts.

GucciLittlePiggy wrote:Shocked and appalled at the low placement for Oneohtrix Point Never. I'm sure it will rise over the weeks but I'm expecting (hoping) for a top twenty finish.

Phew. All is right now! Garden of Delete is 16th.

And I think the biggest surprise of the spreadsheet is how well Alabama Shakes is doing. I know the album was pretty well received but I certainly didn't expect it to do so well here. I thought it would sit somewhere around 50.

I don't get why Adele is getting the cold shoulder while Carly Rae Jepsen gets in the top 20. I re-listened to Emotion a few times today and it's exactly as I remembered it, a completely mediocre album. I didn't find any aspect outstanding, the music, the lyrics or her singing. Is this what critics are doing now, choosing one mainstream pop album to include in their lists? Why this release? What am I missing?

Other than that, I think the top 20 is a really interesting mix. When was the last time we had two Australians in the top 10!! I'm happy for Alabama Shakes too and I'm glad Sleater Kinney wasn't forgotten, I was worried that their early release would impact their presence.

Maschine_Man wrote:I don't get why Adele is getting the cold shoulder while Carly Rae Jepsen gets in the top 20. I re-listened to Emotion a few times today and it's exactly as I remembered it, a completely mediocre album. I didn't find any aspect outstanding, the music, the lyrics or her singing. Is this what critics are doing now, choosing one mainstream pop album to include in their lists? Why this release? What am I missing?

Metal albums tend to get short shrift anyway on EOY lists, but Baroness is one of the better metal bands out there that has gotten larger critical attention (enough to have two albums on AM). So it's too bad that their excellent new record Purple is being released so late in the year, on top of being in an underrepresented genre. Chalk up another deserving album which will be ignored on the EOY spreadsheet due to its release date....

Maschine_Man wrote:I don't get why Adele is getting the cold shoulder while Carly Rae Jepsen gets in the top 20. I re-listened to Emotion a few times today and it's exactly as I remembered it, a completely mediocre album. I didn't find any aspect outstanding, the music, the lyrics or her singing. Is this what critics are doing now, choosing one mainstream pop album to include in their lists? Why this release? What am I missing?

Going by the articles that I've read here and there and the rise of the term "poptimism", I believe we're entering an era since "1989" where critics are trying to reconcile their perception of the mainstream scene and the indie scene. I believe this trend is going to carry on for at least one or two years, but I have no idea where it will go from there. If it had not been Carly, I'm pretty certain The Weeknd or Selena Gomez would have been much higher (because Adele is coming on the heels of an acclaimed album and she suffers from the comparison, and Justin Bieber is still too unpopular) just because critics need to appoint a successful album to justify this trend. I guess their main criterion to judge is an imaginative enough production and commercial success, even if the songwriting itself is not mind-blowing, which Carly delivers in spots on "E•MO•TION" (I'm thinking about "Run Away with Me" and "All That").

I didn't follow the critical scene from English-speaking countries enough to know where this is coming from or to analyse it more thoroughly, but this is my perception on the matter by the little I know of it. Actually, I would gladly take any input, even if it contradicts me, to understand the "poptimistic" movement better.

mowino wrote:Summertime '06 may not make the top 10. Could it break the top 1000 in the update

Generally, in any given year the top 15-20 albums on the EOY spreadsheet tend to land in the all-time top 1000 in the next update. It's a little premature, though, to count Staples out of the top 10 - most of the USA sources have yet to be heard from, and he will likely do extremely well on those lists. I fully expect Grimes to climb into the top 5 when all is said and done, too.

Maschine_Man wrote:I don't get why Adele is getting the cold shoulder while Carly Rae Jepsen gets in the top 20. I re-listened to Emotion a few times today and it's exactly as I remembered it, a completely mediocre album. I didn't find any aspect outstanding, the music, the lyrics or her singing. Is this what critics are doing now, choosing one mainstream pop album to include in their lists? Why this release? What am I missing?

Adele's new one isn't a mainstream pop album (most of it isn't anyway), it's an MOR album for people to play at dinner parties. The music press doesn't much care for that. Carly Rae Jepsen is a mainstream pop album, and the music press fall over themselves in giving acclaim to those.

charliepanayi wrote:Adele's new one isn't a mainstream pop album (most of it isn't anyway), it's an MOR album for people to play at dinner parties. The music press doesn't much care for that. Carly Rae Jepsen is a mainstream pop album, and the music press fall over themselves in giving acclaim to those.

I guess that makes some sense, but 21 (which I think is a bit over the place compared to 25) has been making leaps and bounds with music critics since its release, rising dramatically with each update. You would imagine Adele should be at the peak of her popularity with critics. I guess if she had released the album earlier or had more hit singles the critics would have responded better (which seems to be what happened with 21). I don't think the big sales helped in her favor.

It will be interesting to see at the end of the decade how it is remembered, along with other big popular releases like Emotion, 1989 and Pure Heroine. I don't have a problem with 'popular pop' albums entering the critical arena (songs are already allowed it seems), I guess it's then only paying attention to one or two of the most "popular pop" albums which seems kinda pointless and tokenistic to me. I guess the same could be said for many other genres as well.

Also the last (and only?) time we had two Australian acts in the Top 10 was 2008 - Nick Cave and Cut Copy.

Maschine_Man wrote:I don't get why Adele is getting the cold shoulder while Carly Rae Jepsen gets in the top 20. I re-listened to Emotion a few times today and it's exactly as I remembered it, a completely mediocre album. I didn't find any aspect outstanding, the music, the lyrics or her singing. Is this what critics are doing now, choosing one mainstream pop album to include in their lists? Why this release? What am I missing?

Adele's new one isn't a mainstream pop album (most of it isn't anyway), it's an MOR album for people to play at dinner parties. The music press doesn't much care for that. Carly Rae Jepsen is a mainstream pop album, and the music press fall over themselves in giving acclaim to those.

How many mainstream pop albums a year would you say the music press falls over themselves to acclaim? Like one or two? Besides Carly Rae (who is only at 19 on the list), what albums would qualify this year? I guess I don't really see it.

rohailashraf1 wrote:Any chance if Kendrick Lamar could unseat Kanye from AM's most acclaimed artist of the 2010s?

You mean on this very update? I think that's impossible; MBDTF is extremely high, Yeezus and Watch the Throne have a respectable rank, and Kanye also has loads of acclaimed songs from the 2010s, a few of them ahead of Kendrick's own highest-ranking songs.

rohailashraf1 wrote:Any chance if Kendrick Lamar could unseat Kanye from AM's most acclaimed artist of the 2010s?

You mean on this very update? I think that's impossible; MBDTF is extremely high, Yeezus and Watch the Throne have a respectable rank, and Kanye also has loads of acclaimed songs from the 2010s, a few of them ahead of Kendrick's own highest-ranking songs.

Surprised and impressed that Kasami Washington and Holly Herndon are in the top 20. I wish that Torres was doing better, although #42 is still pretty good. Very happy that Algiers is doing so well - that album is the discovery of the year for me.

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So many new lists today - including a couple of top 100 lists - that I just have to post another update.

I'm jumping the gun on predicting #1 on the Guardian list, but I feel pretty secure about it ...

I corrected the Panda Bear album title - not sure if anyone noticed before now, but I somehow had it as "Vs. The Grim Reaper" rather than "Meets." Also corrected the artist name for Baio (I had it as Balo).

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Nassim wrote:Utterly baffled that Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress only has one mention in the spreadsheet so far, thought it would be top 20 or 30 of the year...

I'm not. The impression I get from many fans is that while it's by no means a bad record, it's their least liked record from GY!BE yet.

Agree with Matski on general sentiment - Asunder is just a decent album, not bad by any means but in no way exceptional, and with some absolute monster post-rock release in recent years, two from Swans and previous GY!BE release and Silver Mt. Zion's from last year, it just doesn't seem worthy of any year-end praise compared to what we've heard as of late in the genre.

If GY!BE were the Rolling Stones - Asunder is a Goatheads Soup/Tattoo You caliber release in their discography.

GucciLittlePiggy wrote:I can't believe CRJ is sitting pretty at number 20 without the benefit of any placements on international lists.

Even more amazing to me is that Ezra Furman, an American artist (born right here in my hometown of Chicago), has accumulated all his points from overseas sources - Perpetual Motion People hasn't appeared yet on a single U.S. list.

I don't know if I've ever seen so much consensus as to what the two best albums of the year are. You can extrapolate that, really, to pretty much the entire top ten - the more lists appear, the more similar they're looking at the top. But Kendrick and Sufjan are so utterly dominant that it's almost breathtaking.

Stevens' surprising lead in the Rest of the World category isn't quite as pronounced as Lamar's in the other two columns, but it's close. With a lot of international lists yet to come, I'm wondering how close the margin between our top two albums might ultimately get. Still think TPaB will remain firmly ensconced at the top, but it might be a tighter finish than we thought it would be (although, of course, Kendrick has been at least near the top of most of the overseas lists as well). We may be looking at two albums debuting in the all-time top 200 in the next update.

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Harold wrote:Stevens' surprising lead in the Rest of the World category isn't quite as pronounced as Lamar's in the other two columns, but it's close. With a lot of international lists yet to come, I'm wondering how close the margin between our top two albums might ultimately get. Still think TPaB will remain firmly ensconced at the top, but it might be a tighter finish than we thought it would be (although, of course, Kendrick has been at least near the top of most of the overseas lists as well). We may be looking at two albums debuting in the all-time top 200 in the next update.

Harold, who are "we"? From a non-US perspective, I don't think Sufjan's RoW lead, or the overall difference between the top two, is that surprising.

Anyhow, fantastic job as every year!!! AM lives on thanks to you!

Everyone you meet fights a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.